


Six Ways To Warm Up A Cold Basement

by MyOwnSuperintendent



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 04:39:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9583994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyOwnSuperintendent/pseuds/MyOwnSuperintendent
Summary: It's February, and the heat in the X Files office is broken.  Mulder and Scully try to find ways to deal with the problem.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The title and inspiration for this fic came from an article that I saw. I didn't read the article, but I would guess that it probably had to do with insulation. This fic has nothing whatsoever to do with insulation.
> 
> I don't own the X Files or anything related to it.

_One_

Their office has never exactly been a temperate zone.  Being in the basement, it’s always been a little hotter than it should be in the summer, a little colder than it should be in the winter.  But now, in the dead of February, something’s gone wrong with the heat, and it’s not just a little colder than it should be. 

It is freezing.

They’ve tried talking to everyone who might possibly be able to do something about it.  They’ve talked to Skinner, who said that he was aware of the issue and would talk to the building super.  They’ve talked to the super themselves; he said he was “working on it.”  This may be true, but if this were a case they were investigating, Scully thinks she would dismiss the idea for insufficient evidence.

It is so cold.

“We’ve got to take this into our own hands,” Mulder says one morning when she arrives in the office.  “I got this yesterday.”  He is setting up a space heater.

“Oh, good idea,” Scully says.  “Here, put it next to the desk.”

“Be careful around it,” Mulder says.  “They cause a lot of fires.”

It is a mark of how cold the office is that Scully’s only response to this is, “That would be a change.”

They have the heater set up and switched on in a few minutes, and it does provide some relief; they pull their chairs close to it as they work.  “Just like camping,” Mulder says happily.

Remembering that the last time they did anything like camping they ended up in quarantine, Scully says, “I hope not _just_ like.”

They have the space heater for two days, until Mulder lets his jacket hang off the back of his chair directly onto the top of the heater and it catches fire and Scully knocks over the heater in such a way as to permanently disable the on switch in the scuffle of putting the fire out.  After a brief exchange of accusations (“You broke our space heater!” “You started a fire in our office!”), they sit and stare glumly at the wreckage.

“You’d think someone would have come to see what was going on,” Scully says.  “You’d think this might motivate them to work on getting the heat back.”

Mulder shakes his head.  “Just like camping,” he says again, sadly this time.

“You mean because there was a fire?” Scully asks.

“No,” Mulder says.  “I mean because the fire eventually went out.  And now it’s cold again.”

It is.  Incredibly cold.

 

_Two_

When Mulder comes into the office, a giant down coat is sitting in Scully’s chair.  As he watches, it moves slightly.

“Hello,” he says.  “I used to have a partner in this office.  Have you seen her?”

“Ha.  Ha.  Ha,” says the down coat.

Mulder goes over to take a closer look.  Scully’s pretty much entirely enveloped in the coat; she’s even pulled the hood around most of her face, although he can see her eyes peeking out.  “How can you work like that?”

“With difficulty,” she says.  “But it’s better than freezing to death.”

“Fair,” Mulder says.  He takes a seat himself and starts on a report.  “Does it work?” he asks after a few minutes.

“Does what work?”

“Your coat,” Mulder says.  “Are you warm?”

“I’m warm _er_ ,” Scully says.  She tugs the coat a little closer around her and turns back to her work.

Well, whether she’s warm or just warmer, Mulder can’t help but think, as the morning rolls on, that she’s surely a lot less cold than he is.  “Can I wear your coat for a while, Scully?” he asks around midday.

“What?  No.”

“But I’m cold too.”

“Then get your own coat.”

“I will, tomorrow.  But just for today.”

“No.  It wouldn’t even fit you.”

“Yes, it would.  It’s huge.”

“If I give you my coat, then I’ll be cold.  No.”

He tries to concentrate on what he’s doing, but it’s still so cold.  “What if we both wear your coat?” he asks.

“What, like two kids standing on each other’s shoulders?” she asks.

“I was thinking more side by side,” Mulder says.  “We could each wear one sleeve and then zip it around us.  I think it’s big enough.”  She is looking at him dubiously.  At least he thinks so—it’s not that easy to read her expression when so much of her face is obscured.  “Please, Scully?  It’s really cold.”

“Fine,” she says at last.  “Here.”  She unzips the coat, showing her face for the first time all day, and offers him the left sleeve.  “You can put it on,” she says.  “But I get to keep the hood, okay?”

“Of course,” he says.  “That’s understood.”  After a bit of maneuvering, they get themselves zipped into the coat and start back to work.

Or at least they try to.  This wasn’t one of the best ideas he’s ever had, Mulder soon realizes.  No, he definitely didn’t think this one through.  Possibly his brain was too numb from the cold.  First of all, it’s just not that easy to move when two people are wearing one coat; there’s a lot of pulling in opposite directions.  And second of all…well, they’re very close.  She’s sort of got her inside arm around him, which makes sense, since there’s not really anywhere else for her to put it.  Not that he doesn’t like her doing that.  He does like it.

Scully’s his partner and his friend.  They always have each other’s backs, they trust each other, and they care about each other deeply; that’s what matters the most to him.  But he’d have to be stupid not to think she was attractive.  He’s thought about being with her, about kissing her—about much more than kissing her—and he’s wondered if she thinks about it too; there are moments when things feel charged between them, when they dance along a line that they don’t quite cross.  It might be a mistake to cross it, when things work so well between them now.

Now, though, with the two of them pressed together inside her coat, it’s hard not to focus on their proximity.  He wonders if she’s also focusing on it.  He wonders if she thinks he suggested this as a ploy to get close to her.

“Are you getting anything done?” Scully asks after a while.

“Not really.”

“Me neither,” she says.  “This is pretty warm, though.”

“Yeah.”

 

_Three_

“Mulder, what are you eating?”

“Oatmeal.”

“That’s what I thought.  Why?”

“It’s hot.”

“All right.”

“You sound disapproving, Scully.  Do you have something against oatmeal?”

“‘Against’ is a strong word…but I associate it with people who’ve lost the use of their teeth.”

“Ouch.”

“You asked.”

“I have all my teeth, Scully.  See?”

“You don’t have to stick your teeth in my face, Mulder.  I never said you didn’t have any.  I was just explaining my feelings about oatmeal.”

“Well, you can feel however you want about oatmeal, but I think you’re missing out.  Do you want some?  It’s warmer than anything else within ten miles of this office.”

“I’m fine, thanks.”

“Suit yourself.  It’s got cinnamon, though.”

“Well, since you make it sound so enticing, I’ll try some.”

“You’ve made the right choice, Scully.  Here you go.  Good, right?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty good.  Thanks.”

“Warms you up too, right?”

“Right.”

“Let this be a lesson to you about jumping to conclusions.”

“You’ve made your point.”

“Why are you eating so slowly?”

“When it’s gone, we’ll be cold again.”

 

_Four_

Who knows what might have been different between the two of them if the basement hadn’t been so cold?

The heat’s been gone for more than two weeks now, and, as if that weren’t bad enough, temperatures in Washington are hitting record lows.  Today is the worst it’s been: nothing is helping.  Scully’s dressed in as many layers as she can fit on her body, and she’s been drinking hot coffee all morning, and she still feels like she’s about to freeze to death.

Mulder’s all bundled up too, and he looks about as happy as she is.  “How are you doing?” he asks her after an hour or two.

“It’s been nice knowing you,” she says, aware that she’s being extremely overdramatic about this and not really caring anymore.  Her teeth are chattering. 

“That bad, huh?” he asks.  He looks like he’s thinking for a minute, and then he says, “Come here, Scully.”  She moves closer to him, and he wraps her in a hug, the two of them pressed closely against each other.  “This might be a little better, anyway.”

It might.  Scully knows this isn’t really a long-term solution, but for a moment she wishes it could be, just her and Mulder in each other’s arms.  Thinking about it that way makes it sound like more than it is.  They’re friends, that’s all, friends trying to stay warm in an extremely cold basement.  But she likes the feeling, likes being this close to him, and she’s pretty sure that he likes it too.  She’s not blind; she’s seen the way he looks at her sometimes, and she thinks he’s seen the way that she looks at him.  They’ve both felt this, then, but there’s been uncertainty too: there’s always some uncertainty mixed in with desire, and that’s even more true in this case, when they’re already so close to each other.  Scully wouldn’t want this to be just sex, and she thinks (hopes?) that Mulder wouldn’t either.  The thought of taking their relationship further is not distressing, but it’s not completely simple either, and neither of them has made a move.

Holding each other like this, though, alone in this cold basement, Scully feels like it wouldn’t take much to get her to make one.

“Think they’ll find us frozen like this?” Mulder asks.  “And open an investigation into it?”

It’s a grim idea, but Scully smiles.  “Maybe.  I think the cause of death would be pretty clear, though, the moment anyone set foot in this room.”

“Yeah,” he says.  He’s quiet for a moment, and she presses her cheek against his chest.  “Scully, if you were actually going to freeze to death, what would you want to do?  Before you froze, I mean.”

No, it wouldn’t take much at all.  “I’d want to do this,” she says, and she stretches up on her toes and kisses him.

He kisses her back.  He kisses her back, and it feels amazing, better than she’s imagined, his mouth moving against hers in a way that leaves her breathless and makes her cling to him.  They kiss until they both need air, at which point they break apart and look at each other.  He is smiling so broadly.  She wonders if their faces match.

“Hi,” he says.

“Hi,” she replies, interlacing her fingers with his.

“Can I kiss you again?” he asks.

“Please.”

And then they’re pressed together again, kissing frantically.  Impossible to think about slowing down, taking their time—not now.  She feels her back hitting the desk, and he stops and looks at her.

“We can keep going,” Scully says.  “I mean, we don’t have to just kiss.”

“We don’t have to?” Mulder asks.  “Or you don’t want to?”

And here she is, saying it, just like that.  “I don’t want to.  I want to do a lot more than just kiss you.”

He pulls her close, his mouth against her ear.  “Oh, thank God, Scully.  I mean, of course I wouldn’t do anything that you didn’t want…but I want to do a lot more than just kiss you too.”

She’s shivering, but it’s not because she’s cold now.  Not as he puts his arms around her waist and picks her up and sits her on the desk and then leans in to kiss her again.

Scully’s imagined this scenario more often than she might care to admit.  She’s never imagined herself wearing so many layers, though, which makes the whole thing somewhat more awkward.  Mulder seems to be having similar thoughts.  “How much do you want to take off?” he asks.

“Well, the coats have to go, at least,” she says, reaching for the zipper of his.  He unzips hers too, and she shrugs her way out of it as quickly as she can.  Not that it makes a lot of difference—she’s still wearing a blouse and two sweaters.  He’s wearing a heavy sweater too, and she wishes they could see each other better.  She wants to look at him, wants his eyes on her.

But this is more than good enough for now, especially when Mulder starts kissing her neck.  That’s always been one of the things that gets her the most turned on, and Mulder seems to know how to find the most sensitive spots with his lips and his tongue.  She squirms atop the desk, murmuring, “Mmm…Mulder…yes, just like that,” and decides that she needs to touch him too.

When she runs her hands under his sweater to touch his bare skin, he jumps away.  “Jesus, Scully, your hands are freezing!”

“Oh!” she says.  “Sorry!  I didn’t think…”  Of course they would be.

“It’s okay,” he says.  “Just…can you do something to warm them up before you touch me?”

“Sure,” she says, and she holds out her hands to take his.  They’re cold, too, and the two of them rub their hands together, the stillness of the moment in contrast to what’s come before.

“Scully?” Mulder says.  She likes the way he says it.

“Yes?”

“I’m just going to be honest here.  I want this, but we’re in a freezing room wearing about fifteen layers each.”  Scully isn’t sure she likes the sound of this.  Is he going to stop things now?  “And I want it to be good for you.  So if you’d rather wait until we’re somewhere a little more comfortable, tell me now, okay?”

Scully smiles and squeezes his hands.  “I don’t want to wait, Mulder.  I don’t even think I can.  And it will be good for me.”  She looks him in the eye.  “Besides, this isn’t going to be the only time, is it?”

He smiles back, and his answer is as emphatic as she could ever wish.  “Oh, hell no, Scully.”

Her hands warm now, she runs them back under his sweater, trying to learn his chest by touch.  He seems to like what she’s doing, if the sounds he makes are anything to go by, and he untucks her blouse and runs his hands over her skin too, cupping her breasts through her bra.  His thumbs brush over her nipples, and even with the fabric between them it’s a heady feeling.  She wonders what makes this all so intense.  The fact that it’s taking place in the office?  How long she’s wanted it?

That it’s Mulder who’s touching her?

She lets out a little moan and presses her cheek to his, murmuring, “I want you inside me, Mulder.  Now.”

“Yes, Scully.”

They don’t make it happen as quickly as either of them would like: treacherous layers are in their way again.  Scully wishes she were wearing a skirt, something he could push up easily; instead, they have to take off her pants.  And then her thick wool tights.  And then her long underwear. 

She gets the giggles when he’s pulling down her tights.  “Sorry,” she says.  “I dressed for the cold.”

“Well, I’d better make sure I warm you up then, Dana Scully,” Mulder says, and she wonders why she thought she needed all these clothes, because now she’s hot all over.  She lifts her hips from the desk so he can pull her underwear down and reaches out to unfasten his pants.

He is so hard when she touches him, and that only makes her all the more aroused herself.  “Let’s not wait,” she says, and she parts her legs and guides him inside her.

It’s all a little strange, the two of them together like this, so impossibly close, she seated on the desk and he standing just before it, both half bundled up and half bare.  But when have they ever not been a little strange?  A little strange and yet right together, perfectly right, as right as everything feels now.  She clings to him; one of his hands is on her hip and the other on her clit, his fingers teasing as he moves in and out of her.

“More,” she says.  “More, Mulder, please…that feels so good…”

“Scully.”  She feels his breath on her neck, unsteady.  “God…you’re amazing…”

“You too,” she says.  “You too, Mulder…oh, that’s so…please make me come…”  She’s very close now: it’s his fingers on her and his cock inside her and the way he’s looking at her and the sound of his voice saying her name.  She moves her hips with his and then there it is; she cries out as she comes, some vague part of her brain wondering if she should try to be quiet, some other part pointing out that there’s never anyone else around here.  Mulder comes almost as soon as she does, and when he does he calls her Dana, and that sends another flush of happiness through her.

They stay holding each other afterwards.  “Should we get dressed?” she asks.

“Yeah,” he says, but then he kisses her hair, and she nuzzles against his chest, and there doesn’t seem to be any hurry.

 

_Five_

The first time was amazing—Mulder wouldn’t change anything about it—but that doesn’t mean that they can’t make the second time even better.  He has faith in the two of them.

The second time in the office, that is.  He’s not sure where their overall count stands at the moment—are you supposed to count occasions or individual sex acts?—not that it really matters.  After their first time, when they were getting ready to leave the office, Scully spoke to him.  “Do you want to come to my apartment?” she said.  “We should talk.  And we could have dinner…et cetera.”  She was smiling, her cheeks still a bit flushed.

He smiled too.  “What do you mean by et cetera, Scully?”

It was pretty clear from her face what she meant, even as all she said was, “Oh, you’ll see.”

They talked at her apartment, over dinner.  “I…I’m serious about you,” Scully said, reaching across the table to place her hand on top of his.  “That was amazing today, and I’ve wanted it for a long time.  But I want our partnership too.”

“Me too, Scully,” he said.  “I think we can handle both.”

“Oh, I do too!” Scully said.  “I just think we should talk about how things are going to work.  And I wanted to make sure…you’re serious about me too, right?  Not just as your partner, as—what word are we using for this?  As your lover?”

He kissed her.  “Scully, of course I’m serious about you.”  Another kiss.  “I’m also crazy about you.” 

It would be better to keep their new relationship and their work separate, they decided, except that they agreed that neither of them would mind having sex in the office again, strictly for warmth purposes, of course, until the heat came back.  Not that they wanted to wait until they were back in the office.  They had sex twice that night, in Scully’s bed, and she slept over at his apartment that Saturday.  He liked waking up to her body against his.

And now it’s Monday, and they’re in the office again, and Scully won’t stop grinning at him, and even the fact that it’s just as cold in here as it ever was doesn’t keep him from being, frankly, stupidly happy.  “You cold, Scully?” he asks her.

“Oh, yes, I’m very cold,” she says.  “You know, I didn’t wear so many layers today.  Since you did such a good job of warming me up last time.”

“Is that a hint?” he asks.

“Yes,” she says.  “Come here.”  He walks the few steps to her chair, and she rises to meet him, pulling him into a kiss.  “You want me on the desk?” she asks.

Mulder shakes his head.  “No, I thought maybe we could try something different this time.  Here.”  He takes his coat and spreads it out on the floor.  “What do you think?”

“I like it,” she says.  “Let’s put my coat down too.  More cushioning.”  She layers her coat over his and then takes a seat on top of them, pulling him down to join her. 

Even though he knows that a government office is not really the place for leisurely sex, he still feels like they can take their time a little more now, be a little less frantic.  They sit together and kiss for a while, his lips moving from Scully’s lips down to her neck, her tongue flicking over his ear and making him shiver.

“Can I unbutton you?” he asks, his hand moving to her chest.  “Or is it too cold for that?”

She considers for a moment.  “No,” she says.  “It’s not too cold.” 

So he unbuttons her blouse as she lies back on the coats, more quickly than he might if they were in one of their apartments, but trying not to rush too much.  He begins to kiss the exposed skin, paying attention to the sensitive spots at the sides of her breasts, to the way she shivers when he kisses below her navel.  Since the first time, he’s had a chance to learn more, to explore her body and see what touches she likes.  And to see her.  She’s so beautiful.

He notices the goose bumps on her skin.  “Am I keeping you warm enough?” he asks. 

“I’m a little cold,” Scully confesses.  “But—mmm—but I’m warming up already.”  Mulder has an idea of how to get her warmer faster, and he unfastens her pants and slides them down her legs along with her underwear.  She lifts her hips to help him along, even as she says, “No fair, you’re still all dressed.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he says, and then he lowers his head to put his mouth between her legs. 

He’s learned what she likes in this department pretty quickly; she hasn’t been shy about directing him, which he thinks is very hot.  And from the sounds she makes as he licks her clit—well, she’s probably not thinking about being cold right now.  “Fuck,” she says.  “Oh fuck, Mulder, yes…”  He can’t remember hearing Scully say fuck much before, no matter what situation they were faced with, but he’s heard her say it quite a few times now, when it’s just the two of them and it’s his mouth on her or his cock inside her.  That’s very hot too.  “Please,” she says.  “Please, Mulder, please…”  And he licks her a little harder and feels her body tense and then shudder, hears her moan out his name again.

He sits up straight and smiles at her, and she sits up as well and kisses him.  “You’re still all dressed though,” she says, starting to unbutton his shirt, kissing the skin as she reveals it.  “Don’t think you distracted me forever.”

“Oh, I’d never think that,” he assures her.  “You’re one of the sharpest minds in the FBI, after all.”

“You got that right,” she says.  She punctuates the words by scraping her teeth lightly over his nipple, and he groans and clutches at her.  She unfastens his pants then and lies back on the coats again, her legs parted, her eyes dark.  “Come on, Mulder.”

He moves to straddle her, kissing her neck again.  “You ready?”

“Very,” she says, and he moves inside her.

It’s an incredible feeling, being with Scully like this.  There are so many wonderful parts about it that he can’t decide which he likes best, but it might be watching her as they move together, seeing how pink her cheeks get and the look of want in her eyes.  It might be touching her, though, the pleasure of feeling her against him and knowing that his touch brings her pleasure too.  Or it might simply be knowing that it’s really her, really Dana Scully, here with him.

He strokes her clit as he moves, murmuring, “Come on, Dana, you feel so good…”  He’s not sure why he calls her Dana when they’re in bed (or on the desk or on coats on the floor, as the case may be), but it was what came out of his mouth the first time, and something feels right about it.  She’s said that she likes it, anyway. 

“Oh,” she says.  “Oh, yes, yes…”  And then she’s coming again, which is good, both because it’s gorgeous to watch and because Mulder can’t wait much longer himself.  He lets himself go now, and he comes quickly, moaning her name against her neck.

Maybe it’s holding Scully afterwards that’s the most wonderful part—knowing that they’re here, and together, and that neither of them wants to let the other go.

 

_Six_

She’s on his lap in the chair this time, his hands on her back, her hands clutching the arms of the chair so that she can brace herself and set the pace.  They’re mostly clothed—she’s wearing a skirt today, which makes that a little easier—and they’re certainly getting very hot, in all senses of the word.  She reaches her climax first, with a soft cry of “Mulder!”, and he quickly follows.

He rests his head against hers.  “That was amazing.”

“Yeah,” she agrees.  They’re both quiet for a minute, neither of them wanting to get up or to end the moment.  “We are wasting so much Bureau time,” she eventually says.

“Only because we have untenable working conditions,” Mulder argues.  “We wouldn’t be doing this if they fixed the heat.  This is a sex strike.”

Scully starts laughing so hard that she almost falls off the chair.  “Mulder, that’s not what a sex strike is!  This is—this is the opposite of a sex strike!”

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” he says.  “I’m not actually doing this as a protest, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

She nuzzles into his neck.  “I’d guessed something of the sort.”

“I’m doing it because you’re too incredible not to touch,” he says.  A pause.  “Okay, and a little because it’s so cold in here.”

She laughs again.  “I’m not cold now.” 


End file.
